The Abdo lab is interested in studying the microbiome, its interactions and function, and how it interacts with and affects its hosts’ health and is affected by its surrounding environment. This specifically includes studying the relationship between host immune system and the microbiome as it is influenced by external perturbations including vaccination, prebiotics, probiotics, antibiotics and other factors such as viral, or other, infections. This is in addition studying viral evolution and plasmid transfer and evolution as it impacts acquisition, transmission and maintenance of antimicrobial resistance. Another interest of the Abdo Lab is focused on developing and applying computational tools for processing and analysis of high throughput sequence data, and the associated metadata, in addition to developing inferential and predictive models and machine learning methods to facilitate understanding of these complex biological systems.
Some of the software generated through the Abdo lab is available on Github: https://github.com/Abdo-Lab.
The Abdo lab is part of the CSU Microbiome Network.
research project
Mucosal Immunity and the Microbiome
Challenge: Little is known about changes in the gut microbiome during vaccination, especially with an oral-probiotic vector.
Objective: Evaluate use of Lactobacillus acidophilus as a probiotic vaccine vector and the reciprocal interactions between the host’s immune response and alterations in the gut microbiome.
research project
Antimicrobial Resistance and the Microbiome
Challenge: Little is known about antimicrobial resistance reservoirs in natural environments, especially in food production. Hard to link mobile genetic elements to host microbes.
Objective: Examine the impact of both limiting and removing antibiotic use on the resistome and antimicrobial resistance evolution in poultry (food) production.
research project
Viral Ecology and Evolution
Challenge: Whole Genome Sequencing of AIV provides a faster more accurate approach and removes need for propagation in chicken eggs for AIV diagnostics.
Objective: Evaluate impact of virus isolation on virus mutation, natural selection, reassortment, and detection of co-infections.
research project
Methods for Metagenomics Classification and Modeling
Challenge: Large data sets are generated using high throughput sequencing and scalable computational tools to process and classify these data are lacking.
Objective: Develop a fast and accurate classification method for high throughput shotgun metagenomics data utilizing Low-Density Parity-Check and Naïve Bayes Classifier implemented using GPU computing.
Publications
Impacts of Antiretroviral Therapy on the Oral Microbiome and Periodontal Health of Feline Immunodeficiency Virus-Positive Cats.
Bashor L, Rawlinson JE, Kozakiewicz CP, Behzadi E, Miller C, Kim J, Cierzan M, Nehring M, Carver S, Abdo Z, VandeWoude S.Viruses. 2025 Feb 13;17(2):257. doi: 10.3390/v17020257. PMID: 40007012
Oral Vaccination Using a Probiotic Vaccine Platform Combined with Prebiotics Impacts Immune Response and the Microbiome.
Fox BE, Vilander AC, Gilfillan D, Dean GA, Abdo Z. Vaccines (Basel). 2022 Sep 4;10(9):1465. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10091465. PMID: 36146543
Chicken Production and Human Clinical Escherichia coli Isolates Differ in Their Carriage of Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence Factors.
Woyda R, Oladeinde A, Abdo Z.Appl Environ Microbiol. 2023 Feb 28;89(2):e0116722. doi: 10.1128/aem.01167-22. Epub 2023 Jan 18. PMID: 3665172
Population genomic transformations induced by isolation of wild bird avian influenza viruses (Orthomyxoviridae) in embryonated chicken eggs.
Hopken MW, Piaggio AJ, Pabilonia KL, Pierce J, Anderson T, Pierce C, Abdo Z. Infect Genet Evol. 2021 Jun;90:104505. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104505. Epub 2020 Aug 20. PMID: 32827730
Impact of oral probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus vaccine strains on the immune response and gut microbiome of mice.
Abdo Z, LeCureux J, LaVoy A, Eklund B, Ryan EP, Dean GA. PLoS One. 2019 Dec 12;14(12):e0225842. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225842. eCollection 2019. PMID: 31830087
more publications
